The present invention relates to a scavenging device that prevents the release of anesthetic gas into the environment of an operating room.
Surgical procedures frequently require the application of general anesthesia to a patient undergoing surgery or another medical procedure. The anesthetic is often delivered through an uncuffed endotracheal (ET) tube. Such a method of delivering anesthetic gas is known to result in contamination of the operating room environment with potentially harmful levels of volatile anesthetic vapor and nitrous oxide gas due to leakage around the ET tube. Studies have suggested that chronic exposure to trace levels of anesthetic gas is harmful to operating room personnel. Additionally, acute exposure of operating room personnel to such agents often leads to complaints of headache, fatigue, and irritability. Accordingly, means have been sought to eliminate or minimize the presence of waste anesthesia in operating rooms without compromising the safe administration of anesthesia.
The mere venting or conditioning of air within an operating room is not considered to be effective to adequately purge the room of any leaked anesthesia gas.
Certain devices have been designed to enclose a patient's head within a hood or mask while delivering a breathing gas and an anesthesia gas into the interior of the hood. Devices such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,742,900 (Giorgio et al.), 4,949,714 (Orr), and 4,444,183 (Heckendorn) typically are used to provide an enclosed space over the patient through which to deliver anesthetic to the patient. These devices generally allow excess anesthetic to be vented directly into the environment of the operating room. In some instances, such as disclosed in the Orr patent, a vacuum port is adjacent to, but not in direct contact with, the exhaust port. Thus, anesthesia gas is emitted into the operating room environment before it is evacuated through the vacuum. Although somewhat effective, such a device may well leave trace amounts of waste anesthesia gas in the operating room, potentially affecting the health of the medical staff within the room.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide anesthesia delivery devices and methods of delivering anesthesia that eliminate or greatly minimize the amount of waste anesthesia gases to which operating room personnel are exposed.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide a device which enables the safe administration of anesthesia while venting any waste anesthesia gas out of the operating room environment. Another object is to provide a waste anesthesia scavenging device which encloses a portion of the patient's head and prevents the escape of any waste anesthesia into the operating room environment. A further object is to provide a waste anesthesia scavenging device which effectively removes waste anesthesia from the operating room environment while enabling general anesthesia to be delivered through traditional techniques. It is also an object of the invention is to provide a method of safely and effectively preventing the emission of waste anesthesia and other gases into an operating room environment. Other objects of the invention will be apparent upon reading the disclosure which follows.